Crochet

For the first time in more years than I can remember, I have got my crochet stuff out again! I inherited several boxes of crochet cotton in various thicknesses (mostly white, but some cream or coloured) from my grandmother, and I have a set of tiny crochet hooks. I used to make Irish lace but haven’t touched it for ages. My other grandmother taught me to crochet when I was 8 or 9 years old (50 years ago – can’t believe it!!) and over the years I’ve done quite a bit.

These are the motifs I’ve crocheted so far, together with the threads and hooks that I used; the thicker thread is 20-gauge, and I used a 1.5 mm crochet hook with this, and made the larger-sized flower motifs. All the smaller flower motifs and the partially-completed butterfly were worked with 60-gauge thread with a 1 mm crochet hook. Nowadays I cannot work this without magnification – when I was last doing it I’d take my glasses off and work close to my nose, but it’s a case of Anno Domini these days I’m afraid!!

These are the simple flower motifs; very few rows and quick to make up:

You can see the considerable difference in size, just working with different thicknesses of thread.

Having seen various people using small crochet flowers to decorate their work, I am thinking of making these up into embellishments, maybe with the addition of a pretty brad or pearl bead or a jewel in the centre, and a backing of ruched ribbon or a paper rosette, or perhaps a piece of decorative paper, or punched or Cricut-cut card. A collection of embellishments could be made up and stored in readiness for making up a quick card when needed.  I’ve already made more than enough to play with, and I may experiment with colouring some of them with inks. Being cotton, the thread should take up colour very well, and it would be easy to rub a distress ink pad on the craft sheet, spritz it with water and muss the little crochet pieces around in it to add some colour! I am sure that a spray of glimmer mist would work as well, and maybe a touch of gold or silver.

This is the first 3-D flower motif that I’ve made, also with the 60-gauge (fine) thread. It has 3 layers of petals.

These are a lot more of a fiddle to make, especially with very fine thread, but worth the effort for the lovely dimensional effect.

Finally, this is a butterfly I am working on, from a vintage pattern book that I downloaded from the Internet.

This pattern is quite complicated to follow, and I couldn’t stop half-way through the wing or I’d have got lost!! I’m thinking of making several butterflies and mounting them on dark-coloured card to show off the lacy effect. This particular design is really pretty, and has loads of potential for future use!

Looking forward to doing lots more, as this is something I can do while relaxing on the recliner when I’m feeling well enough to do something not too arduous, but not energetic enough to work in my ARTHaven.